October treats, scary and sweet
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October is always a fun month in our household. My son Joshua’s birthday is in early November, and he loves a Halloween themed party. We bake cookies in ghost and spider shapes and ice them in foul orange and black colours.
Our other tradition is rather vile, but the children love it. We make a bowl of green jelly and hide snakes in it. The children call it witches’ snot!
More traditionally, we also go bobbing for apples. The children all stick their faces into the bowl of water to get an apple out. We put pound coins into the apples to make it worth their efforts! Last year I made some delicious toffee apples. For the caramel, I made it with unrefined sugar. You stir the sugar continuously. First it will become sandy and grainy, but keep going. Then it becomes golden and velvety, and you’ve got your caramel. Stick some sticks into the apples, then dip them into the caramel. Place them on waxed paper so the caramel hardens.
This year I wanted to make caramel apples with the lovely heritage apples we had on our own apple trees. I had these romantic images of picking the apples in my pinny. Isaac was checking the trees every night to see if they were ready for picking. They were almost ripe when we went away one weekend. And when we came back, they were all gone! I couldn’t believe someone would steal the apples - I was so upset!
Luckily, we get gorgeous russets from the cooking school. They’re crunchy and tiny and I love using them in apple crumble and tarte tatin. The tarte tatin I made for the book is slightly different than the usual recipe. The shortcrust pastry is wonderfully cakey because of the soured cream.
Fools are one of the easiest things I love to make this time of year. I used to think, fool, why is it called fool? Is it because any fool can make it? For gooseberry fool, I poach the fruit and then whiz it up. For apple fool, I cook the apples with a tiny bit of water and a bit of sugar to make a puree. Blackberries I just whiz up. Then I sieve them and mix the puree with a bit of sugar. Next I whip cream and, sometimes, also some egg white in a separate bowl. Then I fold the egg whites into the cream to make a sloppy cream—it just makes the cream a bit lighter. I fold the cream through the fruit and serve it in a glass. I like the fool to look marbled and rippled. It’s best with shortbread biscuits.
Rachel Allen
October, 2008
More traditionally, we also go bobbing for apples. The children all stick their faces into the bowl of water to get an apple out. We put pound coins into the apples to make it worth their efforts! Last year I made some delicious toffee apples. For the caramel, I made it with unrefined sugar. You stir the sugar continuously. First it will become sandy and grainy, but keep going. Then it becomes golden and velvety, and you’ve got your caramel. Stick some sticks into the apples, then dip them into the caramel. Place them on waxed paper so the caramel hardens.
This year I wanted to make caramel apples with the lovely heritage apples we had on our own apple trees. I had these romantic images of picking the apples in my pinny. Isaac was checking the trees every night to see if they were ready for picking. They were almost ripe when we went away one weekend. And when we came back, they were all gone! I couldn’t believe someone would steal the apples - I was so upset!
Luckily, we get gorgeous russets from the cooking school. They’re crunchy and tiny and I love using them in apple crumble and tarte tatin. The tarte tatin I made for the book is slightly different than the usual recipe. The shortcrust pastry is wonderfully cakey because of the soured cream.
Fools are one of the easiest things I love to make this time of year. I used to think, fool, why is it called fool? Is it because any fool can make it? For gooseberry fool, I poach the fruit and then whiz it up. For apple fool, I cook the apples with a tiny bit of water and a bit of sugar to make a puree. Blackberries I just whiz up. Then I sieve them and mix the puree with a bit of sugar. Next I whip cream and, sometimes, also some egg white in a separate bowl. Then I fold the egg whites into the cream to make a sloppy cream—it just makes the cream a bit lighter. I fold the cream through the fruit and serve it in a glass. I like the fool to look marbled and rippled. It’s best with shortbread biscuits.
Rachel Allen
October, 2008
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